Typical Plate Damage, Always a Challenge

Shown below are three relatively "common" union accoutrement plates. All had damage and the owner wanted more presentable relics. As always, matching the solder backing to the existing is the greatest challenge. This isn't to say face matching isn't difficult but getting a believable solder look with the exact layering of grays, white and earth tones continues to be the big hurdle in completing the work to my satisfaction. These came out rather well but only after hours of rework.

1861 Seated Liberty Half Dollar Recovery

I've been swinging a metal detector for over 40 years now, 43 to be exact. I still get surprised at how relics can seem to "hide" for years in a spot I've hit hard. Yesterday, I found this beautiful coin right out in the open where I've used several machines. Whether the freeze and thaw of this particularly harsh winter of 2014 changed its ground orientation and signal or whether the pulse detector technology or just plain luck accounts for the find I just don't know. What I can say is that the signal sounded good on a day when I was taking it slow in a signal-rich (junky)area. It was detected at about 5" depth.

While not a particularly rare coin, for me it's an exceptional recovery and adds to the variety of finds made in this 1861 union encampment. The condition suggests that it was lost before circulating a full year. My guess is that it was lost in December of 1861 with the troops hunkering down in their winter quarters. Perhaps it was dropped into the mud of a well-trampled trail or silently into a fresh blanket of snow. The union soldier who lost it, possibly a Pennsylvanian or Vermonter, certainly could not have imagined how his enlistment would look as the war escalated nor how costly it would be, pocketfull of silvers like this or not.